Energy access transitions in South Asia: a study of positive deviance and the enabling mechanisms for social change at the community level

Abstract

Ensuring modern energy access for all is understood to be a necessary ingredient for alleviating poverty, achieving shared prosperity and social justice. As such, the goal is now recognised as a critical development priority for the international community, explicit as Sustainable Development Goal 7. Yet despite global efforts, many communities in developing countries do not have access to the energy services that sustains many aspects of modern life.Understanding the individual, household and social (community) level interactions with respect to the energy choices that people make is crucial to support effective policy and program design. Yet, understanding these social interactions remains a critical research gap in energy scholarship. The primary goal of the research, therefore, aims to address this gap in the literature by examining the drivers and mechanisms – i.e. leadership, personal and collective motivation, and/or the nature of institutional support and relationships – that underpin energy transformations at the community level.Conceptualising different types of change processes occurring in energy practices – how and why they occur – is a useful frame to further understanding of how energy practices evolve over time, and the critical mechanisms that enable or constrain social change and energy transformation. This research analyses a specific theoretical paradigm related to change and transformation – ‘positive deviance’ – and its utility in helping to understand successful energy transitions. The positive deviance paradigm compels researchers and practitioners to focus on where positive, norm-defying change has occurred within a given context, in this case examples of collective energy transitions at the community scale in rural India and Nepal, to gather rich and valuable insight into how and why such a change has transpired.The following three research objectives guide this thesis:(1)   Describe the enabling mechanisms that underpin energy transitions at the community level;(2)   Establish ‘positive deviance’ as a theoretical paradigm, and evaluate its utility, to understand successful cases of energy transformation; and(3)   Identify the emergence and operations of positive deviance of energy transformation at the community level through the analysis of three very different case studies and thus vastly different contexts.Methodologically, a multiple-case study framework is employed, drawing primarily on qualitative research methods for the collection of data. This includes participatory observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions embedded within the multiple-case study methodological approach. Collectively, the thesis draws upon over 18 months of in-country field work, across India and Nepal.Three different contexts are studied, in which the drivers for energy transformation are very different. In India, two distinct cases are examined that represent community and institutionally-driven change processes. These two cases in India traverse scales; the first observes transformative change at the scale of the village, whilst the second examines regional-level change. In Nepal, the case of energy transformation is observed at the village level, within a community resilience framework following the devastating 2015 earthquake and associated aftershocks. Together, the three case studies enable the research to examine positively-deviant energy transitions at the community level, across three vastly different contexts.This thesis offers new theoretical and empirical insights into social change with regard to energy access and associated practices. The findings identify motivation (both intrinsic and extrinsic forms), practice leadership and trust between stakeholders as critical mechanisms that support social transformations away from traditional, normative practices and toward modern clean energy transitions. The dissertation describes the value for institutions to consider an adaptive management approach to support these social change processes; engaging and promoting local stakeholder participation, learning by doing and continuous monitoring and iteration. Furthermore, the cases presented here suggest that collective energy transitions can prove to be either ‘fragile’ or resilient, depending on the nature of the transition and circumstances, such as the motivations and drivers behind shifts in practice.The lessons within, derived through the analysis of unique and honourable cases of communities who have collectively transformed their energy systems, serve to enlighten policy and practice stakeholders to better support and bring about positive social change, across South Asia and beyond. This dissertation also provides the basis for further research to better understand the social nature of transformative energy transitions and empower a shift toward a more equal, just and sustainable energy system.